Facing History and Yourself

What can we learn about tolerance from the history of hatred? Read our gallery to find out!

Stereotypes and Myths Lie at the Heart of Every Hatred

Stereotypes are the labels “we”
attach to “them” and the assumptions “we” make about “them”—sometimes without
ever meeting “them.” Myths are the
stories we tell based on those faulty labels and assumptions. Both the ancient
Greeks and Romans created stereotypes and myths that dehumanized and demonized
Jews and other groups. Those stereotypes and myths persisted long after the
empires of Greece and Rome crumbled. As Mark
Twain once noted, “The truth is not hard to kill, but a lie well told lives
forever.”